A March 2025 military concept outlines a strategy to capture Taipei by integrating kinetic firepower with cognitive attacks to collapse the city's operational systems and will to fight.
Key facts
- •The Taipei incapacitation concept was published in the March 2025 edition of the restricted journal Military Art.
- •The strategy aims to collapse cognitive cohesion and operational systems rather than pursuing total city occupation.
- •National total war is embedded in Xi Jinping’s Strong Military Thought and China’s official military strategic guideline.
- •The concept proposes using non-kinetic tools like jamming, cyberattacks, and AI deepfakes to disrupt civilian and military information networks.
- •Chinese researchers view the Russo-Ukrainian War as a primary case study for integrating non-military tools into combat operations.
In March 2025, Chinese military researchers published a concept for the rapid capture of Taipei through a strategy termed "all-domain megacity incapacitation warfare." The proposal, featured in the internal journal Military Art, outlines a plan to subdue the city by blocking external aid, destroying key infrastructure, and conducting cognitive attacks to break the population's will to fight. The concept emphasizes achieving submission rather than total destruction or mass annihilation.
The Strategy of National Total War
The Taipei concept is part of a broader Chinese military strategy known as "national total war." Unlike traditional definitions of total war, this approach focuses on mobilizing civilian capabilities during peacetime that can be weaponized during a conflict. This strategy is rooted in the Chinese Communist Party's systems-based view of modern warfare, which seeks to integrate military, media, and financial institutions to deliver effects against an adversary's entire operational system.
Operationalizing Incapacitation
The proposed Taipei campaign relies on three lines of effort: blockade, precision strike, and cognitive attack. A blockade would aim to sever supply lines and information flow using both kinetic strikes and non-kinetic means like cyberattacks and AI deepfakes. Precision strikes would target command centers, communication hubs, and critical infrastructure such as power grids and sewage plants. The authors suggest that by degrading these enabling functions, China could force the city's submission while minimizing the costs of occupation.
Lessons from the Russo-Ukrainian War
Chinese analysts have closely studied the Russo-Ukrainian War to refine their strategic thinking. They identified U.S. support for Ukraine—specifically the use of economic sanctions and the Starlink satellite network—as a model for how non-military tools can enhance lethality. The analysts also characterized U.S. public assessments regarding the conflict's duration as a "cognitive smoke bomb" intended to deceive Russian forces, a tactic they believe demonstrates the power of strategic messaging.
Timeline
- 1990sChina's leaders adopted a systems engineering approach to build comprehensive national power.
- 1991 and 1999China observed U.S. operations in the Gulf and Kosovo wars, leading to the development of 'systems confrontation' theory.
- March 2025Military researchers published a concept for the incapacitation of Taipei in the journal Military Art.
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This article was independently rewritten by ManyPress editorial AI from reporting originally published by War on the Rocks.
